It's not the cheapest Android tablet to hit the shelves, but at £129 the Andy Pad is definitely up there. And believe it or not, it's actually made by mattress seller Mattressman. That's right, the company with a flying mattress as its logo.
But let's not judge the Andy Pad too harshly. The 7-incher is running Android, and comes in two incarnations. The basic 8GB model has an 800x480-pixel resolution touchscreen, which admittedly isn't great, but it does have an HDMI socket, and you can expand the memory using an SD card.
The Andy Pad Pro version has 16GB of memory, a 1,024x600-pixel screen, and costs £179 (£50 more than the basic model). Both have white borders, though the design is anything but Apple.
Both output video to your TV in 1080p HD, both are powered by 1.2GHz processors, and both support Flash. Front-facing cameras on each allow video calls (you can always tell the person calling you're Skyping from an iPad 2, they'll never know). The basic model has a 'Resitouch' screen, ie resistive, while the more expensive is described as 'Sensatouch', which is the company's description for multi-touch, so you can pinch to zoom.
There's no mention of which incarnation of Android it runs, but from the look of its interface and the promise of Flash it would seem to be Gingerbread, the latest mobile version. That means you can use thousands of apps from the Android Market. There's a range of accessories, including carry cases from the company website, and seeing as it makes mattresses as its day job, they're sure to be well padded.
We'll reserve judgement till we get our hands on one, but it's a low cost Android tablet that looks hard-wearing enough for kids annoyed at their return to school. And it's got to be better than this.
Update: We've had both Andy Pad models in for testing. Check out our Andy Pad review and our Andy Pad Pro review at your earliest convenience.
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Comments 9
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anonymous 5 September, 2011 23:06
Cheap low spec tablets are great for kids and the occasional user. I recently bought my 2yo daughter a dodgy 7" tablet running android 2.1 to watch cartoons and movies in the car and on holidays. It was cheaper than most portable DVD players and she's already into playing games downloaded from android market. When the iPad first came out a co-worker who rushed to pay whatever crazy price tag apple was asking was so proud his 4yo could play games on it... Not sure if that means my 2yo is smarter than his 4yo or android is easier to use than an apple or if it doesn't mean anything except apple attract people who like to spends lots of money .... Go for a cheap tablet and by the time everyone has upgraded from an ipad 2 to 3,4 or 5 by the end of 2012, you can upgrade another cheapie with higher spec for half the price they paid for the ipad 2.
Andyt95 5 September, 2011 23:10
"Because they run Android (there's no mention of which incarnation, but we're guessing it's likely to be fairly old)"
They both run gingerbread, which is the CURRENT mobile OS...
Seriously CNET, get some columnists who aren't some stupid Apple fanboys who don't do their research.
"(you can always tell the person calling you're using an iPad 2, they'll never know)"
I hope the person I'm calling DOES think I'm using something other than an iPad, because it shows them that I'm not some materialistic moron who cares only about appearance.
Joe Svetlik, shame on you.
Matthew John Butterfield 6 September, 2011 00:18
^^ Amen. This seems a great little tablet, and hey, it is £179 for the top spec and has flash, already it is more appealing than an iPad 2.
anonymous 6 September, 2011 08:41
@ AndyT95
"get some columnists who aren't some stupid Apple fanboys" - Actually I doubt he is an Apple fanboy, if he was he would have known that the iPad 2 cant make video calls, only video messaging via FaceTime.
Although your comment on the OS is spot on, poor research by CNET, followed up by poor thinking - if it has Flash then it must be running 2.2 as a minimum, which isnt that old and still has most of the features of 2.3 anyway.
Article fail.
@ Matthew
For my money though i think I'd prefer the Lenovo IdeaPad A1, as a budget Android Tab, it's cheaper and looks better.
-Alimus
Nick Hide 6 September, 2011 10:46
Thanks for your charming comments, we've updated the story to make it clearer.
billfred 6 September, 2011 10:53
@Andyt95 - it may be the current mobile OS but it's not the current TABLET OS, i.e. honeycomb.
ace9988 6 September, 2011 15:38
sticking with my touchpad ;)
anonymous 6 September, 2011 23:27
or buy an imported T760 (which is what the andypad pro actually is but with 16gb of storage rather than the T760s 8gb) for even less - even with dhl shipping. Okay - you have to switch the language to english on 1st boot but that's hardly a challenge
anonymous 8 September, 2011 15:49
Andypad runs Gingerbread as you suggested. More specs on Andypad Pro here:
allthingsandroiduk.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-andypad-pro-image-released.html